Japan's Mitsubishi Electric has agreed to develop control devices for small modular reactors (SMRs) jointly with America's nuclear power company. It is also in talks with Russian partners in order to take part in a project commissioned by the country's state-run electricity utility RosAtom.

While Korea is gradually moving away from the nuclear power industry after the government ordered the construction of Shin-Gori nuclear reactors to be halted temporarily, Japan is aggressively taking on the global nuclear power construction market.

The Nikkei reported on July 16 that Mitsubishi Electric would develop SMR control devices after joining hands with Holtec International of the United States. The devices Mitsubishi will develop jointly with Holtec include a system to monitor the nuclear reactor's operation and an electric system controller. The annual sales from the joint development project are estimated to be several hundreds of million dollars.

Holtec is currently developing a small nuclear reactor whose size is a sixth of current-generation ones with the generating capacity of more than 160,000 kilowatts. Mitsubishi Electric plans to preempt the SMR market based on its judgment that it will likely grow continuously for the time being. SMRs are supported financially by the U.S. government in its programs.